Monday, September 17, 2012

James Bond 007: Thunderball - Dir. Terence Young

James Bond 007: Thunderball (1965)

The Good, the Bad,
and the Ugly

by Jay Maronde

Thunderball, the fourth film in the
James Bond film franchise, takes the series to some new places and some old
places, but the journey could be the longest and most fraught of all the Bond
films. In the course of making an omelette you gotta break a few eggs right? Well
Thunderball is one hell of an ugly
omelette, and there are definitely a few egg shells in there, but is quite
delicious nonetheless. So in my usual spirit of optimism I’m going to explain
first the ugly, then the bad, and then the good; so the reader leaves with a
pleasant taste in their mouth.

Thunderball was supposed to be the first
Bond film. Ian Fleming and a team of collaborators wrote the original screenplay many years before Dr. No in what
would be a failed attempt to start the Bond movie franchise. Terrence Young,
who returns to direct this Bond (making it his 3rd) would later
comment that it was a lucky twist of fate that Dr. No was made first, as its meager one million dollar budget would
have been insufficient for such a large effects-heavy film. One could easily
understand if this were the reason for Thunderball’s "delayed" production, but the truth is much much uglier, as most all
lawsuits are. That’s right, I said lawsuit.

You see dear reader, shortly after
an early studio team denied production of the original Thunderball script, Ian Fleming cannibalized the story for a James
Bond book, with the same title (As he was apt to do, considering that at the
time he was producing not only Bond books, but also short stories, and comic books.). This obviously upset the other collaborators, and they sued.

The lawsuits went
on for many years, and some of the rights were eventually re-assigned to the other collaborators. Head amongst this cadre of former writing buddies turned
litigants was the ultimate Bond villain in history: Kevin McClory. Mr. McClory
was very upset that he felt his ideas were stolen (wow an intellectual property
battle in the 1960’s--James Bond is ahead of his time even in the world of litigation) and as
a result of the lawsuit was not only given a producer credit, but was awarded
the rights to the story. He was unhappy with this arrangement: he had always
wanted to direct the film, and besides continuing his lawsuits well into the
next millennium, he also would go on to direct a Warner Brothers produced
version of the film later in the 1980’s that was called Never Say Never Again. Personally I feel that this highlights the
ugliness surrounding the film: the disgrace to the series is still
incomprehensible to this day.

Clearly
Thunderball was a film that has its
issues, but with legal hurdles cleared, production continued, and with the “spy
film fever” at its height, no expense was spared, and while spending a lot of
money can very often produce great action movies, certain aspects of this film
go too far over the top. Certainly for this writer, and many other of critics
throughout history, the verdict is clear: this film DRAGS. The opportunity was there, and Young
apparently couldn’t stop himself from literally putting everything but the
kitchen sink onto the screen. Peter Hunt, the film's editor, stated that he “simply needed more editing
time, the original cut was over four and half hours,” to explain the two month delay in releasing the film. Even at the final cut of
over two hours the movie still seems to drag.

Bond simply exhausts every
locale, woman, toy, hotel, and situation. And while the underwater scenes are
fantastic, they go on too long, and I’ve also heard rumors that numerous divers
died while filming the extensive underwater battles. I’m sorry to say this, but
even though the filming and the idea of an underwater movie/ battle was new and
interesting at the time, the film leaves you with the feeling that you’ve just
watched the newest Jacques Cousteau documentary.

Another part of the film that Young goes
too far with is the women. Perhaps because of Bond’s extreme success with the
misogyny and “pimpin-ness ” during Goldfinger,Bond seems to go even farther during this movie. He has company-funded lady
sidekicks both in Paris and Nassau, and he quickly blackmails a nurse at the
health farm into a steam room tryst. After he fornicates with Fiona Volpe
(played masterfully by the gorgeous Luciana
Paluzzi (who auditioned for the role of Domino, but while not cast,
so entranced the producers that they changed the script to include her
character)) she reveals herself to be a SPECTRE agent, and Bond tells her: “My
dear girl, don’t flatter yourself, what I did the evening was for King and
Country, you don’t think it gave me any pleasure do you?” Overall I don’t feel
the misogyny plays as well or is as endearing for the character, and most of
Bond’s liaisons don’t contribute to anything besides the already too long run
time.

One
tryst that doesn’t just add to the run time is Bond’s seduction of the evil
villain Largo’s girlfriend Domino. Claudine Auger was a former Miss France and
a Miss World runner up, and considering all her snorkeling scenes, gorgeous is
too weak of a word and more fitting would be “wet dream.” Here again Bond seduces the villain’s girlfriend,
and this time it directly helps him save the world, as she is eventually the
one to kill the villain in the final scene aboard the Disco Volante.

The boat
is also a huge part of the movie, the final scene in the film is a massive boat
chase climaxing with an Oscar-caliber explosion. In fact the movie would win
the academy award for effects most notably for the final explosion and
destruction of the boat. In real life the explosion was produced using an
experimental rocket fuel supplied by the US armed services and when the charges
were lit on the day of the filming, many windows along the beachfront in Nassau
(30 miles away) were shattered. Nassau
also plays a prominent role in the film as Bond once again returns to
the Caribbean, which served as the perfect location for filming the
numerous undersea battles including the famous "battle royale" between a US Navy
SEALs team and the villain’s henchmen.

Finally,
before I close I would like to comment on one of my other favorite parts of
this film: The theme song: “Thunderball,” which is performed to iconic
perfection by none other than Tom Jones. This song was actually the third
version recorded for the film as the other two (recorded by Shirley Bassey, later re-recorded by Dionne Warwick and hidden until the later 1990’s) were deemed unacceptable by the producers. Johnny Cash also recorded a version of the song, which told the story of the film in its lyrics, but was never used*. The song is EPIC, and during its recording Tom Jones actually passed out from
the exertion of belting out the final note. Much like the rest of this film,
while utterly fantastic, apparently it’s so fantastic that sometimes it sucks
all the oxygen out of the room.

Thunderball is not without its moments, but after the high watermarks set by the first three Bond films, all of which may fairly be considered true cinema classics, the viewer cannot help but feel a vague sense of disappointment. As Sean Connery prepared to pass the role onto the next actor, and as other actors would similarly "pass the torch" a few more times, the franchise always had (and still has) the potential to have new life breathed into it.

NOTES (by JK)

*While Tom Jones turns in a stunning performance of this song that is clearly most appropriate for the opening titles, the Johnny Cash song demands to be heard. Not only does it feature the excellent songwriting and original singing style that made Cash the legend he became, but it also sounds like "Ring of Fire" and could be considered a sort of "companion piece" to that classic.